Evil Dead: Regeneration [Xbox]

Bruce Campbell may be a B-movie star, but up until now, all the games he's starred in have been D-list. With a budget price and little sign of innovation, one could easily write off Evil Dead Regeneration as more of the same. In actuality, it's a great little game -- chock full of humor, gameplay twists, and top-notch voice work that's closer to what film fans love Bruce Campbell for: It's not grade A, but it makes up for it in personality.

The game's time period falls somewhere between the events of Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness. Instead of being warped to a parallel dimension or time period, Bruce Campbell's Ash just ends up in the nut house. A mad doctor gets his hands on the Necronomicon (the unholy book of the dead, for the uninitiated), and plans to unleash untold horrors onto our time. With the help of a big ghost head, a frumpy lawyer and a short guy with the world's worst case of psoriasis, Ash aims to set things right.

Evil Dead Regeneration changes faces frequently. At the start, you're using your shotgun and chainsaw arm to tapdance a melee/ranged duet on the heads of any Deadite who gets in your way. It's like being a wise-cracking Dante, and is pretty much what you expected the game to be. That's not a bad thing, really; it's just predictable. More adventure elements creep in over time, and the game takes on the feel of a parody of The Suffering, with Ash finding and fighting his way through a prison-style environment. It's when Sam joins your side that things get really twisted.

Sam -- voiced by Evil Dead director Sam Raimi's brother Ted -- is a Deadite like those who Ash lays waste to, but he's actually on your side. Thankfully, Sam handles himself well in a fight, and Regeneration doesn't degrade into one giant escort mission. Even if Sam dies, it's all good; he's a Deadite, remember? In fact, many puzzles require you to kill him to proceed. He can also be punted onto larger or far-off enemies, and you'll take control over him at times. Switching shoes in games can be disastrous (think playing Dr. Banner in The Hulk), but luckily it was handled the right way here: quick and painless.

Sam may be immortal, but he's never too pleased by being decimated for the 500th time, and will let Ash know it in some of the wittiest banter ever heard on a game console. Both Bruce Campbell and Ted Raimi give excellent performances here, making some of the greatest voiceover dialogue heard in a video game. It shows that a smart script and competent actors can make aural magic. Speaking of the script, it's absolutely hilarious. Watching Ash get pounded down by his destiny and bad luck never gets old -- whether another door slams in his face or he's emerging from a demon's sphincter.

Sam is a nice touch, but more subtle methods are also incorporated to keep the game fresh. Ash will find other weapons, such as a handgun and a grappling hook. He picks up evil essence that can let him execute powerful moves or morph into Evil Ash. Large room puzzles allude to Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia, and are also welcome changes of pace -- though Ash walks a little too slow to be traversing back and forth as much as he does. These tweaks aren't enough to put the game in God of War territory, as much of it is still predictable, but they provide a solid gameplay foundation.

The difficulty level is where it should be, and save points are plentiful. Even the camera is rarely a nuisance. To top it off, Evil Dead Regeneration gives you collectables that are actually worth collecting; they unlock quick, hilarious video segments of Bruce and Ted either in the sound booth or just shooting the breeze.

Graphically, this isn't the prettiest game out there, and is one of the only aspects of Regeneration that betrays its budget classification. Characters are designed with style, but the monster models don't live up to our expectations of how a current-gen demon looks. You've seen every one of these environments before in other games, and not much is done to add polish to them.

Ash is money, and Bruce Campbell's performance here is enough to justify Evil Dead Regeneration's $20 price tag. As a full-price title, it wouldn't offer enough to separate itself from the herd, even with its good blend of action and little-person abuse. As is, though, it joins Katamari Damacy and Sega's ESPN sports games at the top of the budget-title hierarchy. Hail to the king, baby.